With changes coming to the federal student loan program in 2026, some students may need to turn to private student loans to fund their education.
Key Takeaways
The Department of Education under the Trump administration is restructuring federal student loans and capping the amount graduate students can borrow.
Graduate students in programs classified as “professional” will have significantly higher federal loan caps than those in nonprofessional programs.
The exclusion of graduate nursing degrees from the “professional” classification has led to backlash from nursing organizations, though the Department of Education suggests the caps would affect only a small percentage of nursing students and notes that it hasn’t made a final ruling.
Does President Donald Trump’s administration consider your graduate degree “professional”? If you’re planning to finance it with federal loans, that definition will soon make a big difference in the amount of money you can borrow.
Law, medicine and dentistry are among the degrees classified as “professional” by the Department of Education as the government restructures its federal student loan programs.
Notably missing from the list: nursing. And that omission has led nursing groups to express concern about potential negative impacts to the health care industry and those seeking to advance in the field.
“This will severely restrict access to critical funding for graduate nursing education, undermining efforts to grow and sustain the nursing workforce,” the American Nurses Association said in a statement urging the government to revise its wording to specifically list nursing as a professional degree, which would essentially double the amount of federal loans that nursing graduate students can take out.
SEE: Best Medical School Loans
What’s Changing With Federal Student Loans
Concern over nursing’s designation stems from an overhaul in federal student loans that was signed into law in July as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The new law phases out the Grad PLUS loans program, which had enabled graduate students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance to complete their degree. Now, graduate students will face new caps on the amount of federal loans they can take out.
Graduate students pursuing professional degrees will be allowed to borrow up to $50,000 in federal loans for any one academic year and $200,000 over their lifetime. Students enrolling in nonprofessional graduate programs can borrow $20,500 in one year and $100,000 total.
The changes will go into effect on July 1, 2026. Most existing borrowers can continue to finance their degree under previous terms until they complete their program.
By enacting these changes, the Trump administration is seeking to drive down the costs of higher education and prevent students from taking on debt they can’t repay.
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